DSS #28 -- "Circle" of Family Says "Hi Dgrin!"

nightpixels

Feel free to say Hi back!

C&C would be appreciated.

p.s. The doggy bone is supposed to represent the exclamation mark.

Katmitchell

Hi Allen..

As usual you have been busy punching out something beyond awesomehuh

What else can I say.. I am too impressed with it at first glance to even think of nit picking.. Perhaps I will come back to it later and see something, but for now..

I am just flat out impressed....

Nice family and "team players" there,,, helping you in getting the perfect shot and the most creative photog of the year award..thumbthumbthumb

I have to ask........ok.......... What on earth were you standing on to get this perspective? :eek1 Did you rent a boom lift :davidtoor what ? (laughing):lol


Did I mention I was Impressed....? winkwink

A-W-E-S-O-M-E



Kat

karlabbott

That is a really awesome shot! I personally think the letters are a bit over the top -- they're creative and good for a quick laugh (in a good way), but I think they distract from the rest of this composition. I find myself looking more at the letters than the rest of the composition.

Karl

richtersl

Great shot! The little dog made me smile -- including him/her was brilliant. Is that a Boston Terrier or a French Bulldog?

Katmitchell

karlabbott wrote:

That is a really awesome shot! I personally think the letters are a bit over the top -- they're creative and good for a quick laugh (in a good way), but I think they distract from the rest of this composition. I find myself looking more at the letters than the rest of the composition.

Karl

Hmmmmmmmmm... Karl is making a very interesting point there Allen... It is awesome cool, but I too, end up trying to read the letters, and when I do that, I tend to lose the whole "circle" shapes > impact..... Maybe try one version with the letters removed and the shadows lifted a bit,, on the colored balls to give them some color punch and brightness..... and maybe share that with us?
Pretty Please..:D:D:D

Kat

travelways

Wow... How COOL is this...!!!

Fantastic idea

Looking at the grass, I see that you probably took them separate and made a composite...

One think that stroked me is that the balls should be more in a circle -

I would like to see a more even distance between them and their heads...

travelways

... and yes, right:

The letters should be oriented on the continuation of the circle radiuses

* Sorry, I used t be an engineer

Wil Davis

karlabbott wrote:

…snip
but I think they distract from the rest of this composition. I find myself looking more at the letters than the rest of the composition.

Karl

I agree; there's just too much in the picture. It reminds me of a poster one of my young nieces made just after she discovered how to change fonts and colours on her computer; it had everything in it (except the kitchen sink), but it was so very confusing to the eye.

I think making the balls all the same colour (white or cream), textured (like a soccer ball, perhaps), and with the letters (black or dark green) lined up on the radii might have been an improvement…

There's something weird with the shadows of the balls; they look consistent if the balls were on the grass, but if the balls were above the heads of the people, then the perspective is wrong, the shadows are wrong and the sharp focus of the grass is wrong; the balls are lit from different directions, which looks strange.

Sorry if I'm picky, but you did say "…C&C would be appreciated."

Something positive: Hey, the dog is really cute!

- Wil

whiterice

karlabbott wrote:

That is a really awesome shot! I personally think the letters are a bit over the top -- they're creative and good for a quick laugh (in a good way), but I think they distract from the rest of this composition. I find myself looking more at the letters than the rest of the composition.

Karl

This is so creative - super impressed with your work here, though I think the letters detract from the overall punch this image packs. Again - very nice work!

travelways

Wil Davis wrote:

I agree; there's just too much in the picture. It reminds me of a poster one of my young nieces made just after she discovered how to change fonts and colours on her computer; it had everything in it (except the kitchen sink), but it was so very confusing to the eye.

I think making the balls all the same colour (white or cream), textured (like a soccer ball, perhaps), and with the letters (black or dark green) lined up on the radii might have been an improvement…

There's something weird with the shadows of the balls; they look consistent if the balls were on the grass, but if the balls were above the heads of the people, then the perspective is wrong, the shadows are wrong and the sharp focus of the grass is wrong; the balls are lit from different directions, which looks strange.

Sorry if I'm picky, but you did say "…C&C would be appreciated."

Something positive: Hey, the dog is really cute!

- Wil

I think the idea of making the balls all one color is a good one - too busy otherwise...

Also I thought about the shadows in the meantime, too - ... maybe you can eliminate them entirely...
- it's not about being realistic here, because it's not - then,... let it be graphical/stylized/simplified

* Another picky thing: the grass should be cloned less visible too -

I hope I'm not discouraging you here...

** ... and yes, the dog is very cute

nightpixels

Thank you all for your feedback! I think I will get rid of the letters and do 2 more versions tonight. One with the multi-colored balls and one where all the balls are the same, I was thinking of creating a beachball in photoshop or something. The shadows are definitely a work in process so I will fix those as well. I will also lower the saturation of the grass.

Yes Linda, the dog is a Boston Terrier. We've had her for a year now.

Kat, your question on the perspective will be answered once I post the link to the exifs

Photo-bug, as far as placing the balls on the perimeter of a perfect circle goes, it would be almost impossible to accomplish that without distorting some of the people in the image, so I will have to live with it. I think it is good enough to be close to being a circle.

travelways

nightpixels wrote:

Photo-bug, as far as placing the balls on the perimeter of a perfect circle goes, it would be almost impossible to accomplish that without distorting some of the people in the image, so I will have to live with it. I think it is good enough to be close to being a circle.

I was talking about replacing a little the balls, not distorting people... but of course it's up to you

Katmitchell

Looking forward to those re-works Allen...

Can't wait to see how you got that height..:D:D:D

Kat

nightpixels

Katmitchell wrote:

Looking forward to those re-works Allen...

Can't wait to see how you got that height..:D:D:D

Kat

Short answer is I had to climb up a tree!

nightpixels

photo-bug wrote:

I was talking about replacing a little the balls, not distorting people... but of course it's up to you

Got it, I will see what I can do. I tried it last night, but then some of the balls ended up getting to close to some of the people which meant I had to move them in to create some distance between their hands and the balls. It started looking weird. I see if I can pull it off.

Katmitchell

No distance is far enough, no shooting gear is heavy enough, and no weather is warm or cold enough to stop me from taking the shot that I want.

Need to Add no tree high enough.. hahahaha

nightpixels

Katmitchell wrote:

No distance is far enough, no shooting gear is heavy enough, and no weather is warm or cold enough to stop me from taking the shot that I want.

Need to Add no tree high enough.. hahahaha

!!! :lol4

nightpixels

Thank you all for your C&Cs. I spent about 4 hours creating a soccer ball from scratch , but I have to say that I am happy with the results. With the previous balls, I felt like the balls looked "heavy", kind of like a bowling ball. I guess I will be going with this version:

travelways

nightpixels wrote:

Thank you all for your C&Cs. I spent about 4 hours creating a soccer ball from scratch , but I have to say that I am happy with the results. With the previous balls, I felt like the balls looked "heavy", kind of like a bowling ball. I guess I will be going with this version:

I think it's much better

Velvet-Art

This new version is amazing. thumbthumb

It seems every round the standards are raised.


Tim

Wil Davis

Wow! Very impressive! The balls look great, and appear to be above their heads, and the lighting and shadows look much more realistic. Like night and day, man - what a great job!

Oh, and the dog is still v. cute!

- Wil

richtersl

Love the redo! And your little Boston still makes me smile.

You created the soccer balls from scratch? That is amazing! I've learned through one of my candidates for the challenge that making a sphere is not all that difficult but what I'm impressed with was how you managed to created that pentagonal shape that's on the ball! I'd love to see the "how to" for this shot.

nightpixels

Wil Davis wrote:

Wow! Very impressive! The balls look great, and appear to be above their heads, and the lighting and shadows look much more realistic. Like night and day, man - what a great job!

Oh, and the dog is still v. cute!

- Wil

Will, replacing the original balls with soccer balls was a great suggestion, thanks!

nightpixels

richtersl wrote:

Love the redo! And your little Boston still makes me smile.

You created the soccer balls from scratch? That is amazing! I've learned through one of my candidates for the challenge that making a sphere is not all that difficult but what I'm impressed with was how you managed to created that pentagonal shape that's on the ball! I'd love to see the "how to" for this shot.

I thought I would never pull it off, it totally kicked my rear. I made like 20 attempts to get the pentagons the way I wanted them to, then used spherize to give it that 3D look. I used the pen tool to create paths then adjusted the stroke size to create the lines connecting the pentagons.

Katmitchell

Dropping back by to see how it is going.. Your thread sure got busy fast I see you got her entered.... Best of Luck to you Allen....

Very Creative...:D


This round turned out to be a fun one.. not as stressful as the energy theme that is for sure... D


Kat